True to Our Call Dicks Last Sermon as Pastor at Messiah

I'd like to begin by reading from Acts chapter 26, starting at verse 9. And as we come into this, the Apostle Paul is now a prisoner, and he's standing before King Agrippa, giving his testimony to the king, and Paul is there in chains. He says, I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And I did so in Jerusalem.

I not only shut up many of the saints in prison, but by authority from the chief priests, I also put them to death and cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme. And in raging fury against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.

Thus I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining round me and those who journeyed with me. When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It hurts you to kick against the goats.

And I said, who are you, Lord? The Lord said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise, stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you to serve and bear witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from the people and from the Gentiles to whom I send you, to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. Wherefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those at Damascus, then at Jerusalem and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God and perform deeds worthy of their repentance.

Perhaps we did not see a light from heaven brighter than the sun, but for each of us, our journey as a follower of Jesus began on a day when we became aware, not only that Jesus is alive and well, but that he is the Son of God. It took a blinding light and a voice from heaven to arrest Paul because he was going full speed ahead in the wrong direction. We were going in the wrong direction too, perhaps not with the same zeal or fire.

Many of us were just drifting slowly toward destruction. But then there came a crisis. Things went out of control.

Getting chilly? Okay, now we'll turn the fan off. But we'll leave the window open. Somebody would just flip off that fan over there.

Somebody know how to do that? Yeah, Bob will do it. He knows where it is. We don't want anybody catching cold.

But we don't want anybody falling asleep. There came a time for us when we were in a crisis. Things went out of control and we found ourselves at the end of our rope.

Suddenly, the Lord Jesus, his word broke through to us and called us to turn and follow him. To leave our old way and from this point on to commit ourselves to the way of the kingdom of God. Wherefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.

Paul had been a student of the Bible from the time he was a child, a theologian for some years. But Paul, up to this point, had had no call, no heavenly vision. He was a religious professional and he was good.

He was a crusader, a bit of a religious politician, perhaps. But now, suddenly, he receives a call to become a servant of the crucified and risen Jesus, the same Jesus he'd been fighting against. And so he turns, now that he sees what it really means to serve God for the first time in his life, this man who'd been trying now knows what it means to serve God.

And he leaves his profession, his career behind him and follows the call. Where does this call take him? It takes him into the city of Damascus to submit to the other saints. If Paul is going to bring them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, if he is going to bring forgiveness to Jew and Gentile, bring them under the power of the blood, spread the gospel according across the known Roman world, he is going to do it as part of a body.

So he goes in to Damascus and he submits to the brothers and sisters there. And from this point on, through the rest of his life, Paul answers his call, fulfills his heavenly vision as in unity with his brothers and sisters. He carries the weight of the glory of God which has been given to him as part of a body.

He makes a deliberate act of submission to these people all the time, never works as a lone ranger. Satan has distorted our idea of what it means to be called by Jesus. We often seem to think that a call from the Lord is something grandiose, something heroic.

I've been called by the Lord, I've been anointed by the Spirit, and now I'm just waiting for my big break. What do you think you're going to be, a movie star? Wherefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God and perform deeds worthy of repentance. Paul did not sit around waiting for his big break.

He began to answer the call immediately in Damascus. When they tried to kill him in Damascus, he answered the call in Jerusalem. When they tried to kill him in Jerusalem, he answered the call in Tarsus.

And when the saints in Antioch needed him to help in the teaching there, he answered the call in Antioch. And now Paul has something to say to us about our call. Reading in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 1, Paul speaks now to us in the Spirit.

I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all lowliness and meekness, with patience for bearing one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called, to the one hope that belongs to your call. The most important thing in our lives is our call from Jesus.

Nothing is more important than that call. Nothing is more urgent than to stay true to that call, and nothing is more tragic than to miss that call. To be sitting there, hearing it go fainter and fainter as it moves up ahead until finally we don't even hear it anymore, and we sit there, dying.

We will be true to the call of Jesus on our lives if we do three things. First of all, if we live under that call 24 hours a day. Second, if we answer that call with a serious commitment to the body of Christ.

And third, if we make sure that nothing interferes with that call, nothing. First of all, we will stay true to our call from the Lord if we live under that call 24 hours a day. I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called.

It's not, I've been called by the Lord and now I'm waiting for my break. But rather, I have been called by the Lord and now I live that call in the mundane humdrum of daily life. Down to earth, matter of fact, constant, faithful, living out on our jobs, in our homes, among our friends, the life of a man or woman who has been called by the Lord to follow him, washed in the blood, anointed by the Spirit, and now chosen to be a servant of the kingdom for the rest of our life on this earth.

That's going to affect the way I think, the way I speak, the way I handle my money, how I do my job, my humor, my use of time. All these things are under the call all the time. Waking and sleeping, I'm under that call.

Good times and bad times, I'm under that call. Under the call of the Lord Jesus who laid down his life for me and with whom I am now nailed to the cross and to the kingdom of God. Secondly, we will be faithful, true to our call if we make a serious commitment to the body of Christ.

That's how we answer the call. That's how Paul did it. I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you've been called, with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.

The call is not lived in isolation. It is lived in fellowship, real fellowship, with a commitment to specific people in a specific place. In his great mercy, the Lord has gathered together here a very, very wonderful mix of serious disciples of Jesus.

Those who have been called to serve him in the context of this body are highly privileged. It's not a sacrifice. You're lucky.

I have learned more in this fellowship among these people than a person could learn in a hundred years in the best seminary in the world. And that'll go for any of us. We learn as we're committed to each other, in all lowliness and meekness.

Where do you learn that? You learn it in the body, here. With patience, forbearing one another in love. That's part of our calling.

Where else do we learn it but here? Eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. How can we do anything if we don't learn to do that? And the place where we learn it is here. Now, if Paul's first response to his call was to go to Damascus and submit to the saints, how can it be any different for us? And this submission to the saints in the body of Christ has to be disciplined.

If I say, I'm part of this body, that means I'm really part of this body. They can rely on me. I'm here.

I'm dependable. I carry my share of the weight of glory and I don't drop it on somebody else's feet. And I wash feet and I serve.

This is not a spiritual entertainment center. That's what you're looking for. You've got plenty of opportunities.

Go find one. This is not a spiritual clinic where we come and get healing for our little wounds, little emotional, psychological wounds each week so that we can then go out and do our own thing. If that's what you're looking for, go find one.

This is a spiritual army where those who have been called by Jesus answer that call in a disciplined way by serving God in worship that's real, serious, follows through with living. And they answer that call by serving each other by washing feet consistently. And they answer that call by serving the lost sheep out there.

They go out there and they find them and they bring them to the banquet table and they don't smell them to see if they smell good enough before they bring them in. If you're serious about your call from the Lord, it will show in the kind of commitment you live toward the body of Christ. Finally, we will stay true to our call if we make sure that nothing interferes with it.

Nothing. When one of those who had sat at table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. Jesus said to him, A man once gave a great banquet and invited many.

And at the time for the banquet, he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, Come, for all is now ready. But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, I have bought a field and I must go see it.

I pray you have any excuse. Another said, I bought five yoke of oxen and I must go and try them out. I pray you have any excuse.

Another said, I married a wife and therefore I cannot come. There is nothing wrong with buying a field. Go ahead and buy a field.

If you have enough money, buy the Upper Peninsula. It's okay. But if that field interferes with your call, get rid of it.

Give it away. And there's nothing wrong with buying five yoke of oxen or a van or a truck. But if that thing, whatever it is, interferes with your call, burn it.

And it's a fine thing to marry a husband or a wife. But if your loyalty to your mate or your love for your mate or your fear of your mate interferes with your call, you're both in big trouble. So the householder in anger said to his servant, go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in the poor and maimed and blind and lame.

And the servant said, sir, what you have commanded has been done and still there is room. The master said to the servant, go out into the highways and hedges and compel people to come in that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my banquet.

Now the thing about the poor, the maimed, the blind, and the lame, the ones Jesus is talking about, is that they have nothing to hold them back. What do they have to hold on to? So when the call comes, boom, they answer. That's still true.

And then there are these folks out in the highways and hedges of the suburbs who are so moved by the prophetic word that they drop what they're doing and they come. They have enough sense to know that there is nothing more important than their call. Wherefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.

We're looking here at a man who was faithful to his call, standing there in chains, proclaiming the gospel of Jesus to a king without fear. Because nobody can take that call from him and nothing, not even those chains, can prevent him from answering it. The question we need to ask ourselves today, and the Holy Spirit will help us with the answer, is this.

Am I being true to my call as of this moment? Am I living the call of Jesus on my life 24 hours a day in my walk? Am I answering the call of the Lord with a serious commitment to the body of Christ in a specific place and in a reliable way? And am I making sure that nothing, not even the dearest, most precious, most wonderful gift that God has given me as a blessing, that nothing is interfering with that call in my heart? Because in answering the call of Jesus, we find our life in this world and in the next. And if we miss that call, we've lost our way forever. Let's just take some silence now, please.

Let the Spirit speak to our hearts in silence.